Please
note: Awards have been discontinued until further notice!
The El Capitan Award:
(Please
note: The criteria and ratings to this award were slightly enhanced
or changed on 10-01-01. All applications submitted before the changes
were made were judged using the old criteria and ratings.)
Basic Criteria - Page One
I expect all
applicants to read both El Capitan Award criteria pages before applying
for this award.
First - some
basic criterion that all sites must fulfill: (I
am bolding certain parts of this criteria page, so no one can say
that they "missed" a certain part! Please read the criteria!)
1. All applicants must be at least 14 years of age.
2. No profane language, pornography, "hate" sites.
Nudity will only be allowed if it is in a "Fine Art"
context (i.e. paintings, art photography, drawings, Life Drawings)
but it must be tasteful and not too explicit.
3. At least 6 pages of real, substantial and original content.
Not counting "links" pages, intro/splash pages, or "awards
received" pages.
4. No "under construction" signs. It's irritating.
All sites are always under construction. No "Coming Soon!"
signs on pages either. You can mention that you are adding additional
content soon, but if you don't have something substantial on the
page already, there's no point in letting anyone see just your "Coming
Soon!" sign.
5.
Pages containing trendy or goofy type will disqualify your site.
(TRenDy and gOOfy.) Same goes with that "cutesy" spelling
nonsense, like "U" for "you". Too many weird
font colors are also frowned upon.
6. All images must load. If not, you are not showing your
visitors all your content - and what's the point in that? However,
I understand that during the editing/uploading process, sometimes
your page will have broken image files for a few hours, or a day.
So if I see one or two broken image links in an otherwise excellent
site, I may check back later to see if you have fixed the missing
images.
7. Your
Flash Intro Page should have a "skip intro" html link.
8. You should have copyright information on at least your
main pages. If you borrow graphics from other parties (with permission,
of course) proper credit must be given.
9. If you gather information about your visitors (feedback form,
surveys, etc.) you must have a privacy policy.
10. No broken links on your site. Check thoroughly to make
sure all your links are working. Most of your off-site links should
work as well.
11. No weird plug-ins. If I don't have a plug-in needed for
your site, I'll leave. I have the mainstream plug-ins (Flash, RealAudio)
but I don't have every obscure "crackpot" plug-in out
there.
12. No membership-only sites. If your site requires any memberships
or requires me to sign up before I can view the site, forget it
- I'll leave.
13. Your site must be in English. I no longer accept English
translation services, because they are rather unreliable in quality.
14. If I see too many pop-ups or gratuitous ads, your site
will be disqualified.
15. Needless to say, your site should not crash my browser.
If graphics take forever to load, I will eventually give
up and leave.
17. No scrolling across the screen at 800x600 resolution.
It is very irritating to have to scroll back and forth, back and
forth, to read and see your content.
18. If you must have music on your site, please have a way to
turn it off. Please bear in mind that I have a Mac. Sometimes
IE or Netscape on the Mac won't "turn off" the sound the
way that a PC does. (This is rare, but it happens.)
19. If your
site is too bizarre, controversial or peculiar, it is unlikely that
it will get an award. It should be basically "Family Friendly".
20. You
should be the creator and designer of the site. If you collaborated
on the actual creation the site with someone else, please note that
on your application. However, if you prevailed upon someone else
to do the actual creation of the site, you are NOT qualified to
apply for this award!
21. Award
Program sites (exclusively an awards program) will not be considered
for this award. If you have an awards program on your site,
you should have at least 4 pages of content that are not awards-related
on your site (excluding links and splash pages).
22. If you get one of my awards, you must display it on your
site somewhere (most likely an "awards" page) and
you must link back to my site. I will be posting your site on my
"Award Winners" page as well. If you tamper with the award
graphic (other than to make it a little smaller) your award
will be revoked. If you move your site and do not inform me of your
new location, I will revoke your award.
Please
note: there are TWO criteria pages that I expect you to read before
applying for this award. Please go to the second Criteria
Page >>
